The Edge of A Razor

I’ve thought quite a bit about the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia the past few days and like many of you, I am very concerned for the future of the 2nd Amendment. Indeed, the loss of Justice Scalia has very troubling implications for the integrity of the Constitution as a whole.
But it’s not supposed to be that way.

The United States of America as constituted was not supposed to hinge on the fate of a single individual. The Constitution and the Republic were not supposed to live or die based on whether one person lived or died. It is supposed to be stronger than any one person, and it is disturbing to note that it now appears that both have become so weakened that the loss of a single Supreme Court justice threatens it all.

And yet, I suppose it has always been that way. Who is to say how things might have turned out if not for individual figures in our history? What if General George Washington had fallen ill and died before crossing the Delaware into Trenton? What if an assassin’s bullet had found Abraham Lincoln in the early days of the Civil War, instead of after?

There are plenty of such instances we could point to which, if not for the efforts of one person, our nation would look very different today. I think the difference today is that we don’t need to look into the rear view mirror of history to see the impact .

All we have to do is to look at Justice Scalia’s opinion in DC vs. Heller, where the right of the people to keep and bear arms was upheld by the narrowest of margins…and we can clearly see that the 2nd Amendment balances on a razor’s edge. Like it or not, it took one man to preserve that right, and it will only take one to destroy it.